


Shadows of Phantom Shinobi

by Toyu



Category: Naruto, Phantom of Inferno (Video Game), Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Reincarnation, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-12
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-07-23 16:10:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7470300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toyu/pseuds/Toyu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her first thoughts are I should be dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To be Alive Yet Dead

Her first thoughts are _I should be dead._

The puppet wakes up in a too small body, tired and confused as tears leak from lidded eyes. In place of a small sob, a loud despairing wail of a male newborn escapes from her mouth instead.

* * *

 

_I should be dead._

Their eyes stare at her, both when she is awake; burning with disgust mixed with hatred for what she has done and in fitful dreams, hallow and empty of life as they ask, in voices barely above a whisper “Why did you kill me?”. She does not reply to the ones in her head nor does she attempt to speak to the ones on the outside, for she is a tool in a foreign world stuck in a one-year old body that is not her own.

* * *

 

_I should be dead._

Even so, she makes notes of the small, one building world around her as she takes her first steps at two-year’s old, much like some of the other children at the orphanage she had been placed in. The tool stares into the dusty mirror with eyes that were a deep blue _not copper-hazel,_ at the yellow spiky hair that had replaced the _black hair_ she had in the past. The thought continuously repeats, like bullets from the semi-automatic pistols or sub-machine guns she had shot and would eventually shoot once she leaves the building for the first time with the other two year olds.   _I. Should. Be. Dead._

She studies the boy that was her current disguise that consisted of a round face, four long whiskers on each cheek, skin that was a shade or two less pale than her previous skin had been, a white T-shirt, grey shorts, and dirty sandal-less feet. A voice calls from the doorway the alias she had been given upon arriving here, and she turns to look at the boy in the mirror one last time before placing a false grin on her-his face. He spins around to answer the person’s call of Uzimaki Naruto, chattering away with false cheer as the orphanage’s main door opens and the puppet steps outside for the first time.


	2. Free yet Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reincarnation observes, the puppet notes, Naruto is surprisingly Naruto.

When he steps outside, it’s not the bright sun high above that temporary blinds ‘Naruto’, but the shear variety of colors of buildings and people that mill about on both sides of the chain-link fence separating him and the orphanage from the outside world. The first thing he does after seeing this is stumble into, then chase one of the more energetic three-year old boys around the orphanage. She makes note of the fence’s continuous height of about five feet and the surrounding buildings, most of which seem to be a story or two higher than the orphanage’s own two floors. Dim alleyways existed between some of the buildings from being so tightly packed together, perfect for an ambush or quick escape if the need for either arises in her future here. The roofing on each building is either plain wood like the orphanage’s, or made from bright tile that was one shade of color per building, red and blue being the most prominent to her eyes. Most of the people who walked about on the other side of the fence barely give ‘Naruto’ and the other orphans a second glance, going about their normal possibly civilian lives.

 Naruto’s blue eyes narrow in confusion as they spot flashes of dark green and black on the rooftops above, the green appearing more often than the black blurs. Her eyes are drawn to the same shade of green fliting in and out of her vision in the crowd of civilians on the road, two men wearing military style padded jackets disappearing into a nearby building. In the brief few seconds she had seen them, the puppet makes note of the different insignias taking up the center of the uniforms back area. On the brown haired teen, a red circle that spirals inward, and on the black-haired person who entered last, a fan of some sort, the top made of a white half circle separate from a red bottom. _Two different factions… there might be more of them here… wherever that may be…_

Naruto’s eyes slowly travel up to the roof of the building, where the black and green flickers continued to dance about with the speed of bullets, his young eyes unable to track or truly observe what was going on. The matron calls for them to come back inside, and with a final glance at the masked pair in grey stealth gear that had materialized on the rooftop a minute earlier, the tool does as it is told. It is a little over one week of silently studying those in green flak jackets and the rare masked person or masked pair that the puppet reviews the information she has gathered. After another night of tear-stained sleep, the trapped puppet secretly goes outside to reflect on what she had learned underneath the light of the sinking full moon.

 At most, there were possibly four known factions in her current location, the green two being lower ranked in terms of stealth, superiority and therefore strength and experience than the ones wearing masks. One of the mask factions used full body cloaks in addition to the animal masks that the mask wearing faction wore, suggesting either long travel from the dried blood stains or hidden weaponry to her eyes. Her first sighting of the cloaked one happened earlier that day when it appeared behind two uncloaked masks, and all three vanish in a black with dashes of white blur in the opposite direction of the other blurred streams. The tool observes the fewer, but still active streams leaping about the rooftops, and the few flak-jacket people still walking about outside, just like she sees each night since she had been outside.

Even without the addition of the cloaked mask faction, the puppet knew from her observations that she was quite simply, outnumbered, under equipped, and _too weak_ in her current body to escape the orphanage. She was surrounded by buildings full of too many obstacles to return to her Master’s side without enduring pain. The girl-trapped-in-a-male-body recognized that even if she had her old body, fully armed equipment and stealth gear, she would still not make it very far without being spotted, attacked, injured, and then killed before she even reaches anything resembling an escape or exit from the area. Which meant, the puppet needed a distraction, something that would allow her to escape without much notice to her own actions. The questions that plagued her mind as she goes back to her sleeping spot inside and sinks into a dreamless sleep revolved around her need to leave and survive…


	3. Phantom Guardian Hound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi makes a camo along with other semi-OC's, and a possible self-insert... (that tag is there for a reason you know!)

Hatake Kakashi stood unmoving before the Sandamie, his porcelain dog mask matching the blank and attentive expression he wore underneath. Long before the moment the new mission to watch the three-year old ‘fox’ began, he was and always would be Hound, loyal ANBU of Konoha.

* * *

 

“You’re dismissed.” The Sandamie states, crinkled eyes unworried as the five ANBU before him flicker out the open window, through hidden mats and doors, and out the actual door to the Hokage Tower. Hound follows Boar, with Hound’s teammate Rabbit following him while flanked by Cat and Tiger to the location of the ‘fox’. A week of watching, before the team is rotated with another ANBU team, and then another mixed team will take over. Rinse, wash, possibly repeat, all to make sure one of the village’s most important assets was not being secretly influenced by the ‘fox’, or was being watched by disguised outsiders of Konoha.

* * *

 

The group lands two buildings over from the target’s location, not wanting to be blatantly seen spying on the orphanage and give away hints to the jinchūriki’s hideout. Not that this would stop anyone who knew Konoha had a jinchūriki, seeing as how the world renown Yellow Flash of Konoha, the fourth Hokage, died the same night the ‘fox’ was sealed. And that the container of said beast was the spitting image of the Fourth, just very small, and just the right size for his age to coincide with the Kyubii’s attack on the village. Hound mentally snorts at that, as the brat was the most obvious village secret in existence second to the existence of ANBU, as any shinobi with a brain could tell what a masked shinobi was.

* * *

 

 _Roof._ Hound signs, jumping forward until he could peek over the top of the building closest to the orphanage while crouching, an obvious watcher to act as decoy for the other four.

 _Alleyway._ Signed Rabbit and Boar, both dropping into one and melting into the background, presences hidden from any shinobi unable to detect a hidden ANBU.

 _Civilian_ signed Tiger before dropping after the two and hengeing himself into the average female Konoha civilian, who walked out of the alleyway and merged with the stream of people. Hound observes Tiger’s path of circling the orphanage while on the lookout ‘herself’ for others doing the same thing before raising his masked face to Cat, who tilts his own head to the side.

 _Tree_. Cat signed, before landing on the rooftop of one of the wooden buildings surrounding the orphanage, then shunshining from there to one of the two trees on the orphanage grounds.

* * *

 

The subject of their observation, newly three years old, left the front door with the other children, and chased them for a short while before walking over to the tree where Cat was. As stated from the previous team reports, subject leans against the tree and observes the other orphan children and passersby beyond the fence, blue eyes flickering with a calculating gleam. Hound watches subject ‘fox’ then re-interact with other children for about twenty-five minutes before sitting in the bench underneath the open orphanage kitchen window, appearing ‘tired’.

After ten minutes, subject leans head against wall and observes cloudless sky above rooftops, determined eyes barely following non-ANBU shinobi with same confused look on ‘fox’s’ face. Subject ‘fox’ then sighs before standing up and walking over to doorway five minutes before Matron walks out and calls briefly to henged-Tiger, who continues circuit of orphanage. Tiger then enters nearby alleyway as Matron faces Cat’s tree and barely dips head in a nod before walking over to water it with watering can, Rabbit henged as Tiger leaves the alleyway. Rabbit enters orphanage perimeter with bags of groceries, enters building, subject remains outside, eyes staring at alleyway Rabbit had left. ‘Fox’ then shrugs before opening door for henged-Bird, who leaves while chatting with Matron, and leaving area through alleyway where Boar waits for Bird. Hound feels someone’s gaze coming from the orphanage, Hound then looks down without moving face and stares back into the intense blue eyes of subject. ‘Fox’ continues staring until Rabbit-Matron calls two times for “Uzimaki Naruto”, who then enters the orphanage for lunch.

* * *

 

Branches of Cat’s tree briefly shake along with other tree in wind, Hound nods head, Cat falls back to alleyway where Boar, Bird, Tiger are waiting, Hound listens in to Bird’s report on ‘fox’. No visible changes in target ‘fox’ other than previously noted changes: hidden mood swings, bright face blank of emotion one second then overly cheerful and loud the next several minutes. Hidden bouts of brooding during day, barely getting any sleep, does interact with other children but keeps at a distance socially, nighttime habit still an occurrence according to Bird’s sharingan. Hound falls back into the darkness of the alleyway and signs to others, _I’ll Watch. Tonight. 2200 – 600._

“I’ll watch as well.” Boar grunts, his arms going across his chest in an act of silent defiance to any objections by the others, who merely nod their heads or sigh dismissively at the rookie. Hound nods, Tiger flippantly signs _Take over_ to both, Hound remains alone as the others shunshin away back to the Hokage Tower to report and do what needed to be done for that night.

* * *

 

When Boar reappeared and reported that the Hokage authorized his and Hound’s joint nighttime watch, Hound settles down in the rooftop alleyway, Boar henging into an average shinobi. Boar then walks in a false drunken state, drawing attention of the few passersby by singing old war songs that some of the other drunks join in. Hound watches, Obito’s eye prickling at the exposure to the cold night air as he barely lifts the bottom of the ANBU mask and lowers the cloth cover with the same hand. It was as easy as breathing air, a simple, barely audible whisper of “Sharingan.” has the pupil spinning and the visible world sharpening as every visible object came into focus.

* * *

 

Hound observes as tears slide out from the half-asleep subject’s eyes, before the kid awakens and rubs them away with the same stoic yet displeased frown on his face. The kid’s chakra vessels and coils were still forming, just like the other bundles and sleeping kids stuck in the orphanage with him. Although weather due to his age, parents, or said routine, the kid’s coils were developing earlier than most of the other two or so years older than him had, a possible prodigy in the making. However, prodigy or not failed to explain the why’s and how’s of the kid’s routine, when there has been relatively little shinobi activity in the area other than a rare cat chase down an alleyway. Hound watches as the kid leaves his bed, creeps out the room, and begins his nightly routine that had been discovered when a bored Uchiha in ANBU had used his sharingan nearby and spotted the activity.

Activity that consisted of standing still in the hallway and then moving with the barest of movement to either side, carefully leaping backwards or swiping hands through the air in slashing movements. Practicing of backhanded stabs, lifting or throwing something over his shoulder, punches, kicks, braced knee-ups, and open palm strikes that left him almost but not quite heavily breathing. Quite a feat knowing when to rest, considering that the kid was a little more than three years old and was doing currently sixteen reps of each, and then the odd hand exercises afterwards… Subject ‘fox’ had already gone back to calmly standing, hands at sides and eyes closed with controlled breathing, not fully formed chakra coils barely used at all in the oddly-timed one hour-long exercise. Naruto then re-enters the sleeping room, returns to his bed and lifts the blanket to cover himself so that he was leaning against the wall with one of his legs in the air with the blanket covering it, like a blanket fort using the leg as a support beam or overhanging wire. This was the strangest part of the ‘fox’s’ nighttime exercises, simply as the previous actions and what Naruto does after doing this could be explained as just that, body and hand exercises.

* * *

 

The sharingan records as the kid raises both hands into the air between his legs yet still underneath the unmoving blanket, arms held straight and hands together with the non-thumb fingers of one hand covering the other hands non-thumb fingers, hands now in the shape of a cup. The thumb of the outer hand was to the side and closest to the ‘fox’s’ head while the thumb of the inner hand was doing the same and touching the other thumb. Then slowly the pointer finger of the inner hand extends from the other fingers a little bit, the rest of the body still as subject ‘fox’ exhales, holds, then inhales. As if at the flick of a switch, the pointer finger returns to the previous position with an upward movement of the arms while barely bending the elbows of both arms. Subject repeats the odd sequence of movement several times, never touching or moving the top of the blanket with each repeat.  It was getting to the point that Hound was beginning to be interestingly **bored** from watching the same precisely controlled movements for little over an hour and a half when the subject does something different. Subject slowly lowers both arms and raised leg with a visible wince that allows the section of blanket covering his head to fall in his lap, revealing a pleased yet pained smile. Underneath the blanket, what the ANBU gossip club had called ‘foxy’s hand exercises’ continues on both hands with spreading fingers, hold for a minute, fingers curling into the palm to make a fist, hold for another long minute. Then each finger was held straight yet close together, like a Hyuuga’s would when doing any sort of hand techniques, spread each finger and repeat continuously for both hands.

* * *

 

Although Hound and some of the others agreed that there was something more than just hand and body exercises going on, what, however, was their job to watch for and find out. Obito’s eye flickers to the upstairs bedroom where the Matron lived, Matron making enough movement to replicate the sounds audible to someone on the lower floor that ‘she’ was getting up. Hound raises the mask and pulls up the cloth cover over Obito’s eye, observing the fox’s slow breathing and half-closed eyes that became fully closed a few moments before the henged ‘Matron’ starts to walk down the creaky stairs to wake them up. Hound lowers the porcelain mask again over his face and senses Tiger approaching from the direction of the Hokage Tower to begin the morning shift of ‘fox watching’. With a ‘drunken’ nod and laugh from Boar, Hound vanishes into the grey morning light as Tiger lands on the roof behind him, no closer to finding the reasons for Naruto’s nightly actions than they had been several months before.


	4. A Silver lined 'Friendship'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two of my OC's make an appearance and I'm so nervous as to how they act, how they develop over the course of the story, and how our little reincarnation is going to interact with them, its been making me go over this chapter and the partially written others over and over again, wondering if I should remove this part, switch this with this part, make char one act in this way but maybe char 2 can do it better... sigh. Ironically enough the names of the two OC's are inspiration for the chapter title among other things. Ahem.  
> Chapter Summary: The reincarnation plans a risky game, everyone gets some candy, and the 'tool' starts to fade...

 

The opportunity to escape presents itself to Naruto less than a few weeks later when he overhears two of the older kids, a pair of five year olds that tended to stay away from the younger group and the more mischievous children by the names of Tomo, and Gin.

“I’m telling you Tomo, it’s not going to work unless we wait until the festival.” Explains the light-silver-haired male, the white bandages over his wrists rustling softly against one another as he crosses his arms.

“And if we wait until the festival, when the streets _will_ be filled with adults, we will be caught if we ditch the orphanage.” The other boy, wearing a simple black shirt and black shorts with short messy black hair replies with an annoyed huff, his vibrant teal-green eyes narrowing as Naruto walks up. “What do you want, three-year-old brat? We don’t have time to play around with you.” He sneers, standing up from the bench he and Gin were sitting on to walk away.

“I herd you t’o. You wan’ ta escape?” Naruto questions with a big smile, basking in the shared look of terror and fear on the older children’s faces. It was amusing how their looks of horror turn to relief when Naruto then says in a serious tone, “I wanna join in, its bor’ng here. And I ken help.”

“How?” Gin asks, his left hand picking nervously at his plain white t-shirt as he bites his bottom lip, light-brown eyes shifting from Naruto to the other kids shrieking and playing nearby.

“Leave it to me. I have a plan.” Naruto states in a calm yet serious voice, making both of the five year olds stare at him in surprise at the sudden change in his demeanor.

I’ll tell you guys tonight, after beddy-bed time.” He half-sings as he runs away, making note of the two new mask wearers that had been following his movements for the past week peering from a nearby rooftop.

* * *

 

It’s near noon when the matron, a woman with neck-length brown hair and an apron that was always slightly dirty chooses Naruto for kitchen duty. Kitchen duty that day mostly consisted of handing out slices of bread, a bowl of non-spicy miso soup, and Naruto’s target, a rare one piece of candy for each child as a treat. Naruto swiftly counts the amount of candy at a glance, and begins to hand out one slice of bread, one bowl of soup and candy for all the children who were above his age. He knew that it took ten minutes for the matron to escort the four to eight year olds outside and to come back inside to fetch the three and few two year olds from their nap. In that time Naruto finished phase one of his plan, a flatly-pressed brown bag full of bumps was hidden underneath the tray of his own food that he picks up after serving the last three-year-old.

The girl-trapped-in-a-male-body walks back to the bedroom along with the other children underneath the watchful gaze of the matron, a brief hint of hatred directed at Naruto as the door closes. After reaching the windowsill, the puppet calmly eats while listening to the chatter of the kids inside, and the sound of civilians and afternoon birds chirping on rooftops and trees. After making sure that the other kids had eaten all of their food and candy, Naruto reveals his bag with a loud crinkle of paper being wrinkled. It was a bit scary, how all fourteen pairs of eyes zero in on him like foes before the gaze of her gun; and stare at his bag of stolen candy, a piece of which he takes out, unwarps, and eats. As if just noticing their greedy looks, Naruto glances up from the bag, and asks in a small, defiant voice. “You wan’t sum?”

“You stolee candie!” one nearby girl, Yui states, even as she walks forward with the other nearby children to look and possibly grab some.

“No, I dident, so no tellie.” Naruto grumbles as he closes the bag after turning it on its side, open end pointed towards the watchful children.

“Yah, you did.” A dirt-covered three-year-old boy named Rei, points out as he steps on a futon to get a better look at what Naruto was doing.

“I’ll give you all som, but onlee if you do one thingy for me.” The tool states, and all the kids share nervous glances before Yui pips up in a half-defiant manner.

“We woent tellie, promise.”

The other kids nod, hands already reaching for the bag. Naruto slides the bag under the window with one hand while holding the other toward the eager kids with his palm up in a stop, and states in a calm, borderline-deadly voice. “Don’t move any closer, or I’ll drop it. I want you to promise to chase me tomorrow without stopping and getting tagged by other chasers. Those who do, get candy.”

In shocked union the tearful, sniffling three and two year olds promise to chase Naruto the next day, who smiles warmly as he brings the bag back inside and hands out one piece to all the kids.

“When willie chase you?” Rei asks as he takes his piece, eyes staring sorrowfully at the remaining pieces left in the bag after everyone had taken one.

 You’ll know when.” Naruto replies as he sets the bag down on the floor next to his makeshift bed, and leans back against the wall to stare out the window at the setting sun. His eyes slowly lower as he falls into the half-aware state of sleep, the sound of various steps approaching and retreating many times tell him when the others take the extra candy and return to bed for sleep.

* * *

 

After waking up from her half-asleep five-hour nap, ‘Naruto’ lowers herself from the windowsill bed where she has been sleeping for the past almost two years, and creeps down the aisle. Intelligent eyes glance around at the half-moth eaten futons lined against both walls and bundled blankets wrapped around the few others sleeping in between the makeshift beds, but no one stirs. Satisfied that no one who might follow and expose her to the matron was awake, she makes her way into the hallway, but for a different purpose than her usual nightly routine. Silently she goes up the stairs to the second floor, remembering her note to skip the third, seventh, and twelfth step in the fourteen step stairway as they creaked and groaned when stepped on by anyone. ‘Naruto’ pauses on the tenth step near the top of the second floor landing, tuned ears picking up even breathing from behind one of the closed doors she sees as she peered between the railing. After deciding that the Matron was asleep and inside of the room if the presence behind the door was anything to go by, the tool turns and creeps towards the open door that was the older kids room.

Naruto looks from where she crouched inside the doorway, noting the shifting of bedsheets and flickering of shadows on the posters hung on the wall above some of the beds. Most of said posters had a single symbol painted on, some with a symbol that she recognizes from the metal bands that the flack-jacket soldiers wore, and the other being the swirly circle on the back of said jackets. Twin sounds of sheets being shifted and then feet lightly touching the floor, shadows from two of the closest beds moving to stand and then slink towards her, revealing Tomo and Gin in the faint moonlight. Tomo opens his mouth when he and Gin are in front of the doorway, but closes it when Naruto raises one finger to his own lips with one hand and made _follow me_ motions with the other. The two share a look before their heads return to Naruto and simultaneously nod before creeping after him into the darker hallway a short distance away from both bedrooms. Its Tomo who speaks first after a moment of silent staring. “Well? Did your plan with the missing candy work?”

Naruto’s head snaps towards the older kid and whispers in a voice containing the barest hint of disbelief “How do you know tht?”

Tomo opens his mouth to reply but Gin speaks first in a swift whisper, his eyes on the matron’s bedroom door. “Tomo went downstairs a few hours back to get the candy to bribe the kids with in case your mystery plan failed, but the bag was gone.”

Tomo releases a huff in mild annoyance at being interrupted, his eyes downcast as he grumbles “If it was there I would have brought it back, all right?”

Gin spares a sympathetic glance at his friend before he locks eyes with Naruto and concludes “…which means that you took it, seeing as how you were on kitchen duty today. Did you use it to get some of the kids to agree with your plan?”

Naruto’s head goes up and down as he whispers back “Yeah. All fourteen of thm will be chasin’ us as de-decoys for the matrn an anyone who comes aftr us.”

At that moment a rather loud snore came from the matron’s bedroom, and both of the older boys flinched in union, which caused an odd twitching sensation at the ends of Naruto’s mouth in response. Determined face still falsely nonplused as she keeps her lips in check, Naruto creeps towards the stairs with a whisper of “Meet me tomorrow when Matron allows both groups out during recess.”

“Will do.” Tomo grunts over his shoulder as he and Gin make their way back to their bedroom.

“Don’t get caught on your way down, Naruto.” Gin adds after a heartbeat of silence before disappearing out of the reduced range of the tool’s senses. Naruto makes her way downstairs, a strangely mixed sense of determination, completeness and something warm growing in her chest as she tried and failed to keep her twitching lips in control accompanying her all the way down.

* * *

 

It was when Naruto pauses in the doorway that she spots the person crouched in front of her sleeping spot, a porcelain mask partially turned to her, eyes containing the barest hint of emotion. Naruto slowly moves forward among the other sleeping children, stopping halfway across the room as the masked face and body of the intruder fully turn towards her, having just noticed him. Neither move in the deafening near silence that follows.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment on what you think so far please!


	5. An Escaped Failure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is so much stuff going on in this chapter... Just...  
> Matron is a badass, the escape plan is put into action, I meet the main character for a second time, and said character's mental state is deteriorating, badly.

The tool opens her mouth, fully intending to ask what the person was doing in front of her-his- _its_ bed, but the brown-haired person wearing what appeared to be a Cat mask vanishes in a black blur. Then reappears in front of Naruto, an upturned hand gently taping his chin once with just enough strength to slightly hurt and close his mouth in the same motion. The masked-woman’s other hand raises in front of the Cat’s lips telling Naruto to be quiet, even as the tool takes a single step back away from the hand, consumed by a sense of unnatural fear. _This is bad…_   a cold sweat breaks out on _its-his-her_ back. Had the intruder listen in on the plan, was she here to stop Naruto from enacting it, or for some other unknown reason? _Regardless, I have been found outside of my bed where I normally am at this time of night… Why is she here, and how much does she know?_ Naruto’s eyes flicker to the left and then to the right before stepping away, the masked person taking a single step forward, the floorboard the intruder stepped on creaking loud underneath her. The boy sleeping in the futon next to the intruder awakens with a small snort of surprise at the noise, revealing himself to be Rei when he sits up. The boy’s face of confusion and messy brown bed-hair remain as frozen as the rest of the room for a few precious seconds before the intruder audibly exhales behind her mask. Rei’s mouth and eyes widening at the sight of the person standing no more than a few feet in front of him, before the tool feels his gaze slide its way over to ‘Naruto’.

Naruto steps further back down the aisle, falsely trips, falls backwards with a small cry of alarm, his-her arms, body, and legs landing on sleepers in the nearby beds and on the ground. The waking three-year olds curses of gibberish at Naruto swiftly turn to shrieks of fear upon noticing the masked person at the end of their futons. The pounding of many footsteps and repeated screeches of the creaky steeps in the hallway stairs has Naruto turning his head towards the door as he gets up off the floor. The door bursts open, and Matron wearing pink cotton nightclothes and wielding a katana in both hands enters the room, all of the older kids shuffling in after her. Matron’s green eyes flicker around the room and land on Naruto, before a rap of knuckles on wood could be heard in the momentary silence that followed her entering the room. The sound came from the masked person, who had somehow made it to the window and was halfway out in the scant few seconds the tool had looked away. The Cat-masked intruder gives a wave followed by a two-fingered salute at the orphanage caretaker, who begins to snarl “You kunai-brained -!” but cuts herself off and darkly mutters the rest. In the next instant, the masked person vanishes in a black blur at the same time the crying orphans go silent as a brief wave of tension that Naruto recognizes as killing intent washes over the room. Just as quickly as it had appeared the atmosphere laced with death dissipates and Matron nods to herself before relaxing with the katana still raised in both hands. Her eyes once again glance around the room and land on Naruto before she asks in a borderline-authoritative voice.

“Who was up first?” everyone points at Naruto and Matron gives a head jerk towards the door before turning around to leave herself. The tool slowly walks down between the futons, giving a small shake of his head towards Gin and Tomo as he turns to walk down the aisle towards the door.

“Go back to bed everyone.” Matron states over her shoulder even as she begins to usher the older kids then Naruto into the hallway.

“But what if the Cat person comes back?” Rei asks her from his bed even as a few of the other kids burst into whimpers and quiet sobs at the mention of the masked stranger. Matron glances back at the sound, sighs before she leans the blade against the hallway wall and says with a tired I’m-too-old-for-this look on her face.

“Everyone gather round, I have something important to tell you.”

Slowly but surely, the children sit down on moved futons, blankets and used the older kids as chairs in a bunched half circle around Matron, who gives everyone a once over before talking.

“There are people with special powers who watch people who live here in the village and protect us in times of danger. They leap from the shadows and rooftops to bring justice to those who want to hurt you, me, or anyone who calls this village ‘home’.”

“What are they called?” ‘Naruto’ pips up only to be simultaneously shushed by the other kids, who glare at him for a moment or two before once more facing the silent orphanage caretaker. Matron’s smile does not reach her glaring cold eyes as she looks at Naruto and answers him in a warm voice that the puppet knows is false, as the eyes tell everything... truth, false, alive or dead.

“They are called ‘Guardians’. The one that visited us tonight belongs to a special, secret group of Guardians that Only wear masks to keep secrets a secret from bad people… and so they are not found when kidnapping evil children who keep bad secrets to themselves…”

With a clap of her hands, the Matron breaks the silence and unnoticed tension in the room before announcing with a smile, “Which is why all of you should be in bed now. Don’t want more of them appearing now, right?”  
Some of the children smile and laugh at Matron as they return to their beds or in the case of the older kids and Naruto, make their way out the door and up the stairs with Matron in the rear. Tomo and Gin stare at Naruto with pity and silently pleading looks before Matron shuts the door to the older children’s shared bedroom. After a moment of silent staring at Naruto, she scowls before walking over to her bedroom door, opening it and gesturing for him to enter. Naruto does so with false reluctance, choosing to sit in a corner with his blanket, facing the door so that anyone attempting to enter the room or inform Matron would be unable to do so without ‘him’ noticing them first. No one attempts to enter the room, and Matron does not say anything to the half-asleep Naruto until it was time for breakfast, followed by an early mixed recess just after midday.

* * *

 

The puppet runs over to where Gin and Tomo were waiting underneath the shade of the tree where she often observed the others from upon being let outside with the other kids.  
“Naruto, I don’t think we should do this, the Guardians might put a curse on us or something worse if we do it while they are watching…” Gin whispers as he moves one foot in small repeated circles.

“Do you think they know what our plan to escape is in detail, or have an idea of what we are doing?” Naruto points out to both of them as they marginally relax before shaking their heads.  
The rustle of the leaves in the branches above have Naruto then the other two looking up to see a pair of moving legs hung on the branch directly over them, a mask briefly seen as the head falls. The masked figure continues to swing down, the Cat Guardian’s face from the incident before appearing an inch from Naruto’s as it simultaneously pokes Gin and Tomo with a pointer finger. The Cat Guardian tilts then turns its upside-down head to each of them, the long brown strands of its hair coming down to Naruto’s waist swishing with the movement. The Guardian then swings its legs off of the branch, and vanishes in a black blur the moment its feet land on the ground in a crouch. The loud rattle of the fence near the main entrance of the orphanage grounds has the three children turning towards it to see the same Guardian crouching on top of it, a Dog Guardian shaking its visible head at the Cat from a rooftop beyond the fence.

“Are you certain we should still go with the plan _now_?” Tomo growls in fear, his eyes flickering to the rooftop where the Cat Guardian had hopped next to the Dog one before vanishing again.

“We hve two now, they think we’re not gonna to.” Naruto swiftly explains in a displeased mutter that failed to hide the glee shining in his eyes. For a moment he-she stood there in the center of the orphanage yard, flanked on both sides by her fellow conspirators.

Naruto inhales deeply, and leans forward while shouting at the top of ‘his’ lungs “Come Get Me You Guys!”

Despite only ten of Naruto’s bedroom mates responding with physical action as he leads them around the orphanage, the puppet can feel more than twelve pairs of eyes focusing on him. He leads the pack of mostly three year olds past Gin and Tomo, who shrug at each other before jogging over and merging with the stragglers near the back. Upon noticing that they were being flanked by two larger kids who normally stayed away from activities like this, the runners in the rear put on bursts of speed as Naruto leads the group around the orphanage a second time. The moment the puppet feels a few of the hidden eyes pass over her in favor of something else, she turns towards the opening in the fence and cries “I’ve got more candy!” while slowing down while still staying out of the reach of the chasers. Briefly she feels the presences of Tomo and Gin next to her before Naruto, like them and the protesting, shrieking kids chasing after them are all swallowed up by the thin crowd of adults and others walking to and fro on the street.

* * *

 

 _Fuck_. Matron-Tiger signs with both hands, a loud, all too real groan of despair following the double flip sign towards the sky, the universe and the escaped brats as she shepherds the rest inside.

“Brilliant.” Chuckles Jackal, fingers still bandaged from where he had sprained them from over usage on a month long out-of-village mission that had ended a week previously.

“Bird, Rat, have visual on target?” Hound asks, a feeling of _I’ve fucked up. Again._ settling in his gut, the cries of a thousand birds echoing in the back of his head.

“Negative. ‘Fox’ blended in with the crowd and was constantly on the move during last visual, making himself difficult to track… On purpose…” the Uchiha stats as an afterthought from his hiding spot. Rat silently nods her head, face pointed towards the south of the village and body tense like a spring, ready to go bounding after the target with all the grace of the Hyuuga that she was.

“I’ll go inform the Hokage. Initiate Code ‘Fox Out of Henhouse’.” Jackal mutters to the others in a near whisper so that only the nearby ANBU, including an unhenged Tiger, could hear him. There is a brief stifling pause as the jackal-masked ANBU stares at Rat, waiting like an explosion tag about to, well, explode.

Rat dryly says “The fox has left the chicken coop with ten chicks and two roosters, four secret work-hands have left their nearby stations in pursuit to aid in round up of missing animals.”

Jackal nods at Rat before weaving hand signs and vanishing in a swirl of leaves, heading to inform the Hokage of what had just transpired as henged-Tiger again returns to the orphanage.

Hound sighs while he readjusts his mask, turning to face the direction where most of the kids had fled along with Rat, Bird facing a different direction as Hound thinks to himself.  
_Ten non-chakra developed brats, two that have so they might be switched by enemy shinobi that have secretly infiltrated the village if we don’t get to them first, and four nearby ANBU in pursuit. Could be worse, and could be better._ With a flare of chakra, the newest reassigned member to Konohagakure’s ANBU reappears, the previous Cat having been switched with her on near-permanent outpost duty sometime around midnight the night before.

“Jackal informed me and the Farmer about the escaped animals while Famer was on his noon walk around the village. Assigned S-Rank mission with main priority of keeping the fox’s identity and escape from henhouse a secret while recapturing it. Gathering of the roosters then the chicks is our second objective.”  
After a moment of pause, Cat sighs before muttering sourly “Not even the first five minutes of my off-duty time back in the village while not on a mission have passed and _this_ had to happen… who the hell did I piss off to deserve this?”

 No one bothers responding as Bird signs _Hound, Rat, Cat, get Fox and others. I’ll wait and watch._ The others silently nod once before Rat leaps in the last direction Naruto had been seen by her byakugan, Cat and Hound trailing close behind.

* * *

 

After leaving the other decoys on the sparsely crowded street in front of the orphanage, the puppet dashes down the nearest alleyway, across another unpaved street, and into an exposed alleyway. After doing this twice more she swerves left around the corner of the alleyway she had just fled, slowly running down the street so as to confuse anyone who had managed to deduce the direction she had fled in. Her eyes flit from left to right, noting that like on the other streets she had crossed, there was a strange absence of cars, however carts with horses seemed to be used instead of this as a mode of transportation _. It explains the lack of dumpsters in the alleyways for me to hide in,_ the puppet thinks, remembering her brief surprise as to how quickly her fifth contingency plan beyond getting out of the orphanage had to be thrown out.

She leaps over a pair of wicker baskets next to the wall, her head almost touching the overhanging roof with the force of the jump. “Wha…?” Naruto exclaims in terror, as a three-year-old should not under any circumstances be able to do what she had just done in this body. He lands on the other side, and continues pounding sandaled feet against the dirt, a brief spat of confusion rattling the inside of both her heart and mind. The puppet sees it after ducking down the dim alleyway up ahead to his-her left and then weaving in and out of the people moving on the suddenly crowded street.

 _When you are the hunter, think like your prey. When you are the prey, think like the hunter._ The tool knew that she would be useless against those who hunted her without a weapon, as they were armed whereas she was not _. I’m most likely marked now_ , she thinks as she emerges out of the crowd next to the target, and yet with a weapon in hand she would have a higher chance to survive then escape. A small one-story building with blue cloth dividers that had white kanji and a smaller wooden sign centered above the entrance in hiragana proclaiming it to be a ‘weapons shop’. The tool ducks in, taking a moment of the silence and lack of others to calm Naruto’s racing heartbeat and to even out ‘his’ breathing as she looks around the seemingly empty shop.

* * *

 

There are an assortment of boxes lined up against one of the walls, with various weapons hanging above on wall stands or nails, but none of the ones she was looking for. _It does not matter._ She thinks to herself as her gaze passes over swords, sickles and spoils of wire hanging on the wall, folded nunchakus on some of the shelves among sheathed tanto knives and various kunai. _A tool in the right hands is still a weapon._ Naruto peers into the nearest of the smaller boxes, discovering it to be full of the same knife that the puppet recognizes as a normal, un-pronged kunai. She picks up one and studies it, noting the way it gleams in the dying sun’s light, edges unchipped and smooth sides barely scratched from previous usage.

As if sensing the presence of a potential customer, a well-built man who appeared to be in his late to mid-thirties walks out of the divided doorframe set in the back wall and spots Naruto. “Well now, aren’t you a little young to be using those yet?” he asks with a disarming smile as he walks over, hands wiping something off on his apron.

The puppet shakes ‘his’ head, a convenient story already absorbed and being acted out on in mind.

“No, sir, as my father is a bis-business man who travels and sells we’pons, just like you do!” he chirps, eyes wide and shining with _‘real’_ admiration at the older person.

The black-haired shop owner chuckles a bit before turning a stern gaze to the kid in front of him, his warm-grey eyes looking Naruto up and down before he speaks in a cheery yet husky voice.

“Well then, I’m certain he has many fine weapons of his own. Why don’t you run along and ask for one of his and for some money to _buy_ one of mine?”

Naruto shakes his head, a displeased look on his face as he tests the kunai with several slashing motions, deeming the weapon satisfactory for the purpose she intended to use it with a nod before replying.

“I ken’t. Dad won’t let me hav one of his own, ‘these are for business, I’ll buy you one at the next town’ and I dun’t want one of his. I want one of yurs from here as a souvenir, mister.”

“A ‘souvenir’ from my humble and quiet shop in Konohagakure?” the shop owner playfully echoes as he takes the kunai out of Naruto’s hands while still talking. “I think you’re the first person I’ve heard of that wants a weapon as memorabilia…” Humming thoughtfully to himself, the weapon’s merchant walks over to the counter with Naruto following close behind like a shadow. As the man steps behind the counter with the kunai, the puppet’s easy going gaze focuses on the prices and currency symbols attached to most of the weapons hung on the wall. _Ryo_?

The word was familiar, but as a modern Asian currency it was not. This newfound knowledge troubled the tool, as she had studied the various currencies used around the world, and yet had never heard of this one before…

The sound of many voices approaching at different distances could be heard floating through the open door, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts. “Find him!”

“He went this way! Hurry up!”

“Search over here, he can’t have gotten far!”

Sending a childlike grin at the shopkeeper, the tool backs up before walking fast towards the counter and leaping into the air a few feet in front of it. Somehow she lands on top of it and manages to not destroy her-his sandals on the various equipment that was orderly scattered across the countertop. With the same movement of jumping down behind the counter, he-it-she snatches a kunai off of the countertop before landing in a crouch, pressing ‘Naruto’s’ back against the counter. The shopkeeper only spares a glance at him to which the boy raises one hand to his lips before mouthing _father’s guards_.

With a dismissive shrug yet raised eyebrows at the hiding kid, the weapon merchant turns his head towards the door, sensing the approaching presence of someone or a group of people. With a small smile on his lips he gives a polite nod in the direction of someone or people unseen to Naruto, as the rustle of the dividing curtain at the front of the shop tells her-him of their location.

“Hyuuga-san, the reserved shipment of kunai you reserved a few days ago for the ongoing war will be sent to the compound latter today as you specified.”

A younger but still authoritative voice answered the shopkeeper as the puppet notes the drop in the cheerful atmosphere and the new information accompanying the approaching footsteps.

“As it rightly should. However, what I am here for is not to check on the shipment but to collect a different one…” the last sentence drips with disdain, as if the owner would rather be doing anything other than this.

* * *

 

A visible hand reaches down towards Naruto’s head, and the tool weighs the pros and cons of allowing herself to be captured, or attacking without any information on her unseen enemies. The puppet decides to wait and attack when she was closer to her enemy and knew who or what she would be facing beyond the counter. As the hand grabs a handful of blonde hair, the tool slides the kunai into a sleeve then wraps the end of the sleeve into her fist, thereby not allowing the weapon to fall out. In the next instant, pain registers as the hand pulls upwards, causing Naruto to yelp while his feet dangle in the air, kicking widely but unable to touch neither counter or the stranger.

“Ow! Ow, that hurts!” he cries out while false tears stream from his eyes for a few seconds, his free hand grasping the wrist of the hand that held him by his head. As Naruto continues to struggle his eyes flicker around the room, noting that it was only one person who found him and that the person called Hyuuga had borderline-white pale-pink pupil-less eyes. There were blood-less veins raised around each eye like a spider’s web, and the tool thinks briefly before acting on the thought. _A disease related to eyesight... Blindness? His weakness… no, his strength. He found me despite being unable to fully see the world around him. In other words, by my presence alone… I need to take care of him first…_ The Hyuuga closes his eyes and the veins recede back into the skin around the eyes, and the tool takes full advantage of the lapse in concentration and possible eyesight.

Using the strength and small muscles built from her nightly training, the tool pulls on the wrist, using it as leverage to swing Naruto’s lower body up and around the Hyuuga’s arm. Suddenly having a large portion of his arm being weighed down by a brat, the Hyuuga releases Naruto’s hair, and the tool’s vision is upside down. Gritting her teeth, her legs unwind and bend in the same moment that she plants her unarmed hand against the floor, like she would in preparation for a vertical push up. The chaser takes a single step back with his body tense for Naruto’s attack, so instead of hitting his lowered arm’s outer elbow, the tool’s double-back kick only hits air. His-her hand twisting to follow her-his opponents body, Naruto repeats the move, aiming at his chest instead but her legs are too short, and land on the floor with a disappointing thump.

 _Why couldn’t I reach him? My attacks should have connected…_ A shadow looms over her, and the tool realizes why she had failed as she stares at the suddenly gigantic foe staring down at her with eyes full of contempt. “Get up, or do I need to pick you up again?” the stranger states with a sigh of barely concealed lamination. Naruto does so, but swiftly dashes to the side and behind her opponent, the knife sliding into his hand from where she had concealed it as she turns to face his back. The words _Ankles, Achilles tendon_ register in her mind a moment before the knife travels through the air across one ankle and then the next one in a slow yet perfect motion. The red spray of blood cements her purpose into the weapon and briefly, the world stills, frozen in time. Then the Hyuuga curses something even as his legs give out underneath him, torso twisting as he attempts to face his attacker. Naruto slowly takes a step back even as the shopkeeper says something, words unheard over the repeated rule of **_No witnesses_** echoing in the puppet’s head. _No time…_ the logical part of her brain states as the downed opponent begins shouting, most likely calling for reinforcements as she turns around towards the door and possible freedom. ‘Naruto’ flees the shop, clutching the blood-stained knife to her-his chest as she hears the shop owner shout after her, “You still have to pay for that, un-Konohagakure brat!”

* * *

 

The tool runs on, eyes following each raw, dirt-puffing step of her sandaled feet, chest aching with each painful inhale of cooling air as the sky begins to be stained with a faint pink hue. She feels them following her, tracking her from an unseen location like she would track her targets through a sniper scope waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

She was just one, just one perfectly trained, well-oiled tool that would have already engaged the enemy, gathered information and utilize it in her escape if this were the past. The memories of escaping similar numerous situations in her past fill her mind… But things were different, she was alone, in an untrained body that was recognizable to her chasers with only a knife and body stained with dried blood as her weapons, no knowledge of the exits to the place, no way to return…

  _No. I will return. If I don’t then…_ she shakes her male head to clear it, unwilling, no, unable to finish the thought itself, for to finish would mean a weakness, and she was not weak, she was…  _Traitor. Failure. Wea-_ “No! I’m not that! I’m, I’m…” The girl trapped in a body not her own squeezes her eyes shut, desperate to prevent the tears that were beginning to form from escaping her eyes. The voice that speaks her words is not her own, yet was the same voice that had been speaking for her for the past three years. In the small, frightened, despairing and tired, so very tired voice of ‘Naruto’ she whispers “…still _his_ tool…”. His-Naruto’s- _her_ - _the-tool’s-its_ voice breaks at the end and the tears burn as they finally escape, their existence uncertain. The _tool_ knows that _it-she_ exists with the certainty of a candle before a constant gust of wind, the ember-wick glowing brightly in the wind before the wind ceases along with its light. She opens her eyes to find herself leaning against a concrete wall on a near deserted street, the knife resting in the crock of her-his elbow as her-Naruto’s too small arms wrap around her-his too small chest, breathing in and out in short rapid pants. _This… isn’t like me…_

Her eyes briefly close and her breathing is replaced by another, a ghost whose presence was more real than the wall she leaned on, beckoning her onward to his side. As if to block her own distorted thoughts, the puppet opens her-his hazel-blue eyes, leaves the wall and slides the knife in one of the pockets of the shorts he-she wore in the same moment. Naruto begins to walk away from the wall, slowly increasing his pace until he was jogging, then running once more as the sky above slowly turns a deeper shade of crimson red.

* * *

 

 _This… This is just another dream… if I escape, I’ll wake up… and Master will be there, waiting for me… in my other ‘dream’…_ A memory filters up through her tired mind, the end to a conversation she had with her other self, the other tool made in her image so long ago as Naruto turns again, running next to a river.

 _“To survive, think of this as a never ending dream, a dream that will only end when you die, or go insane from killing people.”_ By which she had meant ‘ _This is a dream that you don't leave until you die or go insane._ ’  
“I’ve certainly done the later, with my appearance… and this place as well…” the puppet mummers to herself with a broken smile in Naruto’s voice, the voice that was not her own. Just another reason why she had to escape this ‘dream’, return to her Master’s side, and continue being his tool, an emotionless assassin who only knew a world of blood, gun smoke and death. And yet something nagged her as she runs on, a thought of despair that refused to release its hold over her mind. _Do I, truly want to return… to that dream of death…?_

Naruto runs on the sidewalk path next to the river, every sense tingling as the tool approaches a pair of black-haired kids that might have been family members siting on the river bank. Their black clothing had the red-white fan centered on the backs of their shirts, proclaiming them to be members of that particular faction of this ‘dream’s’ military. She feels the calculating gaze of the oldest who looked to be just over eight in appearance follow her until the youngest, a three-year-old, distracts him from Naruto with small cries of “Oni-san, lokit me!”. With a small sigh, Naruto leaves the path and returns to the alleyways, the river far too exposed for her to escape without being spotted, the older stranger proving what she already knew. Once underneath the cover of the surrounding buildings, darkening alleyways and streets, the thought of despair tightens its hold, demanding to be answered.

 _Yes,_ she tells her troubled heart, as away from Master, she was nothing, a person without a purpose, name or past to call her own… _This is a dream that you don't leave until you die or go insane… This is a dream that you don't leave until you die or go insane… This is just a dream…_

The puppet sees two flack-jacket soldiers emerge from a building further down the street and turns into a narrow alleyway to avoid them. The sinking sun she sees up ahead is briefly hidden by something large that is also obscured from view as a person appears at the end of the alleyway. The masked figure raises from its crouch, the top of a mountain briefly seen behind him over the rooftop of another one-story building before the Guardian’s head blocks even that from the puppet’s sight.

_Just a dream… that has become a nightmare…_

* * *

 

Naruto skids to a stop, the Boar Guardian’s eyes seeming to be black in the shadows of the mask he wore. The girl-trapped-in-a-male-body whirls around; but someone else is already there, a person who could have been around the same age as her in her past life based on his teenage-like appearance. The tanned-skin male wore civilian clothing and had long borderline-black dark-brown hair that was up in a top-knot style. A thin healed scar that went across the bridge of his nose spoke of some combat experience along with his hair-style, unlike the flash of recognition and fear that flew across his face as his eyes connected with Naruto’s.

Immediately the tool presses his-her back against a wall as _its_ grip tightens on the blood-stained knife in her hand as her gaze flickers from one unmoving masked foe to the other. _If I go after the weaker one first…_ her eyes return to the masked one, _then my back will be exposed to the other… which means…_ her back leaves the wall as he-she-Naruto-tool turns to face the Boar-Guardian; blue eyes and whiskered face already blank as he-she takes a step forward. _I’ll have to take care of the stronger one first…_

As usual the tool stares into the eyes of her foe as she approaches, already seeing the light fade from the masked person’s eyes as she eliminates him, standing over his corpse… Then, the eyes begin to change color, a crimson red where black pupil had been before, three individual black tomoe appearing at the edge of the pupil; separated in a Y shape that seemed to spin... Naruto stumbles, her-his vision beginning to fade in and out as she-he continues forward towards the unmoving Boar-Guardian. The tool brings the knife close to her chest and then throws it at the mask; but something hits the kunai in mid-flight with a sharp ping, and its falls to the side with a clatter. A small gasp escapes Naruto’s lips as he falls to the ground; vision now black and her consciousness being pulled down into the darkness even as she fights against it. A pair of something thin and sharp enters her shoulder and she hears a far-away male voice saying “Boar-san, Iruka-chan, I can’t believe you two really need my help tiring a brat out.” The tool’s numbing hand struggles to move to remove the tranquillizing darts, but her mind is forced to give in to the world of sleep and dreams…

* * *

 

“Genma-san!” Iruka exclaims at the jonin who had materialized upon the top of the alley’s wall,

“That all of them? All your chickens and fox accounted for?” Genma grins at the ANBU as he takes out another senbon needle and places it between his teeth. Boar gives the faintest of nods before moving forward to pick up the sleeping Naruto, Genma leaping down after a short pause to retrieve both his own and the stolen weapons.

Iruka narrows his eyes in confusion before letting out a sharp exhale of air; an open look of shock appearing on his face before it turns to barely-concealed, muted terror as he inhales again. Both Genma and the ANBU raises their heads from where they stood over Naruto to see expressions of deep sorrow then burning hatred etch themselves on the fourteen-year-old’s face. “Fox…” Iruka spits, tears starting to flow from both of his dark eyes as he exclaims. “He is that monster?!? The beast that almost destroyed the village and murdered my parents among countless other shinobi three years ago?!”

Genma frowns at this before saying “Does this kid look like its going to gobble up a young man like you in his sleep Iruka?”

“But his eyes; they were red as blood and didn’t look human at all!” the teen argues; his own eyes appearing black and haunted in the lengthening shadows cast by the setting sun.

“So does any Uchihas when they use their kekki-genkai.” Genma counters, the tip of the senbon needle going up and down with each word as he turns to face the ANBU. “No offense, Boar.”

“I’ll take him back.” Boar calmly replies even as he conveys a thinly veiled threat in the slight bristle of the ANBU’s body at the mention of his clan before picking up the sleeping Naruto. Boar blurs away, sending out a brief flare of chakra as he passes the weapons store where Hound, downed Rat, and Cat were investigating and waiting for medical-nin to arrive. Cat responds with a flare of her own as she appears on the rooftop alongside Boar as they move across the rooftops back towards the orphanage. _Rat. Alive. Compromised._ She signs before dropping into a nearby alleyway; the green blur of the average past-chuuin shinobi leaving it in the direction of the Hokage Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, even if it is to guess at what will happen next.


	6. Run Through Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Naruto' dreams, a past is revealed, the 'assassin' awakens once more from its slumber...  
> In other words, angsty pain up ahead.

The girl with black hair and hazel-eyes runs on through the darkness, only aware of the feeling of grass underneath her feet, a _strong wind_ against her skin, and the tears that streamed down her face. Unable to see, she still runs on, for anywhere would be better than the place she was being taken back to. There is no sound other than her labored breathing as she runs on, the feeling of grass giving way to dirt, _no,_ she realizes, _its ash_ , for the smell of it was in the air. She is aware of some sort of unfamiliar clothing on her skin that vanishes the moment the smell of ash turns to sweat, the feeling of it between her sandaled toes leaving her as her bare feet pound away on unseen wooden boards. The girl slams face first into something invisible that feels like skin, heated as if in fever. She senses the invisible people that she dodges and weaves around from the faint whispers around her, the sound of liquid dripping from unseen skin. The tool feels brushes of heat in the air as she squeezes between the bodies, laborious pants and moans that suddenly sound very close then echo in the distance. A pin-prick of light appears up ahead, and she directs herself towards it as she continues to move through the invisible people and darkness, which slowly give way to half-familiar settings. The mall where she and Zwei had gunned down a mafia boss, the carpeted floor of the hotel hallway where she had killed several gun men who were targeting her Master, a familiar barren wasteland covered in broken bricks, corpses and ash, the street in L.A. where her ‘home’ was, the place where Master had trained her… The girl runs on through many more sceneries as the white light slowly pulses, and grows on.

The light continues to grow, white flowing streams being tinted with a familiar electric blue, a place that she had been to many times before, if the memory she remembers is correct. The girl is aware of her old clothing once again settling on her skin as she approaching the light, a short sleeved yellow geisha shirt with red buttons near the top held together with looping black elastic wire. Long blue skinny pants, pockets only in the back materialize on her legs, and elbow length dark-navy-blue gloves that only extended to cover the middle finger form on her arms. She pauses just before the light, the voices of those she had killed and others whose origins were unknown call to her from behind, the voices ranging from hate-filled anger to lust and fear. “Rot in He–” “You’re Ph-Phantom!” “I’ll do you in, nice and slow…” “Who the hell are you?!” “Why… why us?” “Die traitor!” “You’ll pay, f-” You’re mine, ha ha, all mine…!” “Why Did you Kill us?” “Ahhhh!”

 _The past does not matter. Nor does the future, for there is only one path I walk in the present…_ She thinks as she turns her back on the voices and the new wall of mist, patches of sky blue, pure white, and bright green that flash and swirl around in the shrouding mist. She steps forward towards the blue pulsing light, and does not forget the blood-stained past she knows.

* * *

 Her feet are still bare as she enters the light, to reveal a familiar and aching sight in a familiar room from her known two years of non-Naruto memories. The light from the light bulbs bath the grey concrete walls in a cold electric blue, the bare metal table in the center gleaming along with the gun-filled glass cases that line the walls. A familiar man sits in an arm-less swivel chair to the side of the table, familiar ocean-blue eyes not looking up from his task of oiling the Luger pistol in his hand with a cloth. She studies him with his combed silver-grey hair, pale skin, white buttoned suit and pants, the aged man’s appearance unchanged despite the difference of time.

The sound of someone else breathing softly in a corner of the room draws her attention to the only difference of the room from her memories. A Japanese teenager with long downward spikes of hair, skin a golden-brown tan from being out in the sun for days on end, sat in the corner unoccupied with a glass weapon’s case. The suit and long pants he wore matched his black hair, along with the familiar pistol that he gripped the handle of in limp hands between his knees, his breath and appearance that of someone sleeping. Without a change in his breathing, the tool known as Zwei opens his hazel-brown eyes and glances at her, before once again staring at the Beretta 92 FS in his hands and closing them. The girl thinks _You’re… protecting Master… in my place…_ as her gaze returns to said Master, the man in the center of the room.

* * *

 

The tool does not move, unsure of what to do with confusion clouding her numb heart and mind; as despite the near three years she has been separated from him, her Master, her role in the world had changed. _Too weak. Failure._ The words echo in her mind along with the memory of pain in her lower abdomen, the bullet burning her insides as she bleeds into darkness…

“Come here, Ein.” The middle-aged man at the table says with a German accent, not ceasing in his task or looking away from the cloths back and forth movement over the extended barrel of the pistol.

The last word washes over her like molten lava into the ocean, and hardens into a shell around her heart, sealed off from the world and herself. “Yes, Master.” Ein answers, and steps forward until she is beside him, unmoving as a tool without its wielder, her role for him unchanged. The man who trained her lowers the gun to the table, and reaches for the bottle of gun cleaning oil that rests on the corner of the table before speaking to her. “Disrobe, Ein.”

The girl does so with familiar movements. She removes the gloves, then undoes the black string around the bright crimson buttons near the top of her shirt, finishing with lowering both shirt, bra, underwear and pants to the cold concrete floor and stepping out of her clothing.

“Who is your master?” the man born as Helmet von Giuseppe asks, his hand spreading gun oil from her left shoulder to her neck to shoulder again, cleaning her body just as he had the gun’s.

“You, Master.” She replies in an emotionless voice.

“Who created you; an untouchable angel of death…?” he continued, his hand traveling in repeated swaths along her arm and then moving to her side.

“You, Master.” Ein replies, the memories of the orphanage already fading, like wisps of smoke before a soft wind.

“What is your purpose, Ein?”

Ein inhales as a chip appears on the glass surrounding her heart before answering, like a dog to the commands of its owner. “To assist you, Master.” The hand travels back up to her shoulder before traveling across her back, the nap of her neck and over the other shoulder. Her Master’s action of spreading the near-cold gun oil across her skin does not make the puppet flinch despite the difference in temperature, for she _is just a tool_.

"And when the time comes for your performance, will you always act with the grace and perfection that I have instilled in you?”

The crack the chip causes deepens and widens, burrowing its way through the glass as it spreads. Ein’s hands barely tremble as she attempts to answer, the memory of her failure smoldering in the back of her mind. _It does not matter if I have failed him once… if Master still desires to use me, even as a failure… then I shall serve… until I die…_

“Yes, Scythe Master…” she answers in a small pained sob that should not have escaped her pale lips, and the trembling turns to shaking that travels across her whole body. Ein’s breath sharply hitches as she closes her eyes, unable to cease her body’s unnatural behavior or her own thoughts in her Master’s presence.

_But how… when I can’t escape… and return to him…? What reason do I have to live… without Master’s orders?_

She feels something wet travel down both cheeks as the presences of Zwei and Master vanish along with the sound of breathing, all alone in a world not her own, a place she does not belong.

* * *

 The scenery changes to a room that was rarely used in the orphanage during the few years she had been there, a room that was large and spacious. The crimson light that spanned through the windows against one wall illuminated all the children before her as a familiar heavy weight enters her right hand, a loud click echoing as her fingers move automatically. The Colt Python revolver is raised, and as one all of her fellow orphanmates look up with eyes full of playfulness, innocence, recognition, and simple joy, because of the false life she had made to fit in.

 Six white flashes, six thunderous roars, six bleeding heads hit the floor; bodies still as the happy looks on the other faces turn to frozen looks of fear, confusion and horror. Six spent casings hit the floor in a clatter of empty metal, followed by six clicks as the tool reloads the weapon, the world-filling silence briefly gone as twelve more eyes become hollow and lifeless. The remaining eight pairs of eyes sparkle in tune with her strangely loud erratic heartbeat with a light of their own as they fill up with tears that swiftly spill over. Their stares become the kind Ein is more familiar with in this ‘dream’ as well as the previous one. Looks of anger, she reloads two bullets, glares of pain, another bullet is added, determined fear in one of the eldest kids, Yako’s hardened gaze as he begins to stand up, the clicks of three more bullets the only answer she will give them.

 With the ease of doing it so many times before, Gin, Tomo, Rei, Yako and two other kids whose names the tool had already forgotten fall before her as she hears the sound of running footsteps in the hallway. Ein fully reloads the gun with precise and simple movements; blue eyes revealing nothing but emptiness that match the eyes of the surrounding dead. The two surviving kids, both no more than just over four years old, run past the assassin towards the door which swiftly opens as Matron enters the room. The fleeing children pass Matron as Ein aligns the barrel of the pistol with the brown-haired head of the girl; a white flash and the corpse stops running, body pitching forward as she falls.

  _I kill._

The thought echoes in the back of the puppet’s head as the gun moves across the chest of the approaching Matron to aim at the other kid. Three white flashes erupt from the muzzle of the revolver as three of the remaining five bullets stopping both of his legs and his heart. By then a shadow had appeared over Ein, and it did not matter where she pointed the gun; the orphanage caretaker would still be hit. The reverberating _Bang!_ the gun answers her hand’s simple squeeze with does not reach Ein’s ears, nor does she register the sharp scent of blood and death that was perforating the room. A red-stained hole appears in Matron’s chest as droplets of blood spray from the falling woman’s lips; the final bullet in the gun that Ein held entering the woman’s head. Some of the droplets hit the front of the white shirt that was against her-his chest; a few splatter across the side of Ein’s whiskered cheek. Ein sees the movement out of the corner of her eye and turns her head towards the mirror, her eyes drawn to the constant movement of the tears that flowed down the yellow-haired boy’s scared, sad face.

* * *

 Naruto’s eyes slowly open to see a familiar ceiling, a familiar view from the familiar window to its prison. “Damnit…” Ein whispers in a half strangled sob, as the tool’s vision blurs with tears all too ready to be shed from eyes that were not her own. The pair of red eyes full of hatred reflected in the window turned blue when she blinked; just another ‘unreal’ part of her dream…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to apologize for being so late with this chapter, its literally been sitting on my computer with less than three sentences missing from the middle, ending all typed up and ready to go... Well, its done now, so leave a comment!


	7. Against New Foes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Self-Insert takes control in this chapter, characters that will be and have been lurking in the background are revealed, (I might expand on this in a part two for this series, but I'm testing the waters with this chapter) and the Sandamie ponders with a cat.

The curtain of spring rain lashes against the window to the second-floor bedroom, the steady drumming failing to mask the voices that could be heard from within even by passing civilians.

“Bakashi, this is why you’re Still Single!” states the brown-haired; lightly-tanned woman in her mid-twenties as she twirls a white Cat mask in one hand while scowling at the idiot in question. Said person leaning against the wall with his face covered by a similar Dog mask merely turns another page of his Icha-Icha book in response.  

The mask less woman releases a pint-up sigh before growling “Don’t make me put you in a dress again, _Scarecrow Head_.”

Without looking up from his book or a change in his bodily expression, Hound replies “ _And here I thought you had forgotten your own ‘global’ language; Toyu._ ”

Continuing in the same coded language that she had arrived in Konoha with during the Third Shinobi War, Toyu’s mahogany-brown eyes sharply flash at her name before replying.

“It’s called ‘ _English_ ’ Koroshi, and –” A black blur replaces the Icha-Icha reader, causing Toyu to let out a short, terse oath in the native language of the five Great Countries. “Oh for the love of -” The ANBU throws her hands up in the air with a flare of chakra all across her body, a displeased pout forming on her face as she angrily huffs to herself “ _Dagnabit_ Kakashi!” The unmasked ANBU inhales deeply as she blinks away the forming tears in her eyes as she switches back to English once more before half-muttering. “…I’m the baka, idiotic asshole!”

Echoing silence in the empty room was what answered her as she surveys the surroundings of the room itself. With a worried frown, Toyu bites the bottom of her lip and softly swears again as she places the Cat mask once more over her face before opening the closed window. “It still hurts doesn’t it, knowing what you did…” she sighs softly before muttering underneath her breath “ _I_ _hate_ being a blunt _American gaijin_ sometimes…”

The Cat-masked ANBU steps out onto the side roofing and closes the window behind her, the sound of the rain hitting her mask a cold reminder of her existence. “My own _“face”_ is hard to maintain, especially when you see your own as that of a lonely dog, Kakashi.” Cat states as she takes two steps forward to the edge of the roofing. The rising mist from the downpour of seasonal rain fails to hide the crouched figure a few rooftops over and the middle finger it gives her before vanishing from her senses. Cat’s shoulders noticeably slump before squaring as she steps off the rooftop, sending a burst of chakra to her feet in mid-fall, using the raindrops as a ‘step’ to shunshin off from. Toyu heads to a certain ramen shop that she knows that the future main character of the story that she had found herself in will eat at after being reincarnated into her second life.

* * *

 

It was obvious to even Tomo that the Matron was doing everything she possibly could to keep the pair away from Naruto; from sending them out on errands to other mundane tasks, Gin notes.  Even with the older kids and newly-turned five-year-olds now able to leave the orphanage supervised by a adult due to the new rule; the two best friends were still unable to talk to Naruto.

 Gin shakes his head with a sigh as he remembers the recently enacted rule at the orphanage. The rule stated that due to the newly-made peace with a country that their village had been at _war_ with; the orphans that were ages five and above could now go outside of the orphanage grounds. The downside was that the exploring orphans needed “to be escorted by an adult”; or as unofficially stated in the rule, a group of genin, as was currently occurring to Gin. Although the five-and-a-half-year-old was mostly certain that the ‘genin’ were supposed to be Konoha genin, not the odd, civilian-dressed group that had arrived at the orphanage that morning. Even so, Matron’s words about the last missing orphan that she had said after he and Tomo had been escorted back to the orphanage at the end of their failed escape echoed in his ears.

_“That Naruto-brat brings nothing but bad luck. You need to avoid him from now on, understand…?”_

Almost as if reading his thoughts, the teen who had introduced himself as Toboe gives a strained smile towards Gin before facing forward again; the parted sides of his reddish-brown hair swishing against his neck with the movement. The teenage girl in a long dark-pink dress who was walking ahead of the pair with her brown hair tied in a twin tail style continues chattering about some farm that was on the outer edge of the village where her ‘boy friends’ worked. She pauses from Gin staring in concentration at her as he musters up the courage to speak.

“Your name was Aerith…?” Gin nervously asks her; and the teen nods her head with a soft smile that matches the warmth in her eyes. Gin inhales before asking, the worry showed in his voice and eyes. “If a friend was in trouble… but you were not allowed to help… what would you do?”

Aerith lets out a small hmm as she taps a finger on her chin while Toboe exclaims “I would help, of course! I mean…” Aerith gives Toboe a hard slap against his back; which he rubs sheepishly as she addresses Gin. “Like Toboe said, it would be best to help them if they are in trouble. Otherwise you wouldn’t be a true friend, right Gin?”

The young boy smiles at their words before giving an encouraging nod to himself “Yes, your right…”

Aerith smiles again at Gin and Toboe puts his hands behind his head with a cheerful smile-filled nod of “Mm-hm!” in agreement. With a satisfied nod Aerith twirls around and weaves her way through the crowded street, which was full of people enjoying the brief reprieve from the previous three days of rain.

“Ah! Wait for us, Aerith!” Toboe cries out as he attempts to follow the moving girl, but she had already vanished, as far as Gin could tell. Toboe and Gin walk on, turning their heads in search for her and for the other member of their group; one of the legendary Blade Wielders of Konoha, Gatsu Guts. From the few rumors that Gin had heard as so-called nightmare material; the man certainly lived up to his battle-fearing name of the Black Swordsman in appearance. Guts wore a black sweeping cape, metal gear that shone more of shadows than light; although Gin thought this was more due to the shadowed location of the orphanage than the person himself. And yet what struck Gin the most was what the rumors mostly emphasized about the swordsman; his scarred face that consisted of a slash going downwards through the right eye, a small scowl with his black spikey hair, and the iconic ‘giant slab of iron’ that was his sword.

Guts was frightening at first but Gin was not one to openly judge on first appearances, plus Guts was a hero of Konoha, so logically, he should be safe to hang around… Either way, the man had parted ways no more than a street away from the orphanage, stating he had other business to attend to. The plan was for him to meet them back at the shop that the remaining trio were going towards, a place called Anteiku. After a few more minutes of searching for both missing members, Toboe lets out a small sigh of disappointment before raising his left hand to his chest; and stating “Kai!”.

When the puff of white smoke cleared, a red-tinted light-brown wolf with a copy of the same bracelet Toboe wore on its right front leg stood where the human had just a moment prior. Gin physically feels his mouth drop open at the sight even as he hears a few people chuckle at his reaction in passing, no one else in the moving crowd minding the sudden transformation that had just occurred. The wolf flicks an ear back, as if hearing something before turning away from Gin; its head turned to look over its shoulder back at the unmoving boy with yellow eyes that reminded him of sunflowers; warm and bright. It barks twice before trotting forward; Gin hesitantly following the wolf at a distance before jogging close and grabbing a fistful of fur along its back for fear of being separated from the only remaining member of his escort. A voice similar to Toboe’s own but faint and echoing in its origin speaks in Gin’s head.

_“Get on my back, Gin.”_

“What?” Gin squawks as he swiftly looks around for the source of the voice, which chuckles softly at the same time as the wolf’s head shakes with light laughter. The young boy stares into the wolf’s mirthful eyes and connects the wolf and voice to Toboe’s actions a few moments beforehand. “You’re Toboe…?!” He hesitantly asks.

The wolf, no, Toboe, wags his tail and lets out a small yip of affirmation in response to Gin’s question. Gin briefly shakes his head in disbelief before climbing on the crouched wolf’s back and deciding that some things were better off left in the dark. A sense of unease swiftly replaces any curiosity of Gin’s as Toboe leaps upward onto a nearby roof, his nose twitching as the wolf looks further down the rooftops stretched out before them. Without any warning Toboe’s trot forward turns into a run, leaping over the gaps between rooftops and streets with relative ease that spoke of doing this many times before. Gin’s fingers tighten their curled grip into the wolf’s coat with each jump, his heart pounding in his ears as Toboe swiftly picks up speed, the visible world beginning to blur around Gin. The wolf suddenly ceases moving in the few moments that Gin had his eyes squeezed shut to avoid dirt particles or possible shingled shrapnel from the roofing.

 _We’re here… and I think it’s safe to open your eyes now_. Toboe chuckles as Gin does as suggested, letting out a sigh of relief at being on the ground once more. For a shop holding such a collection of characters, it appeared from the outside like a more expensive version of most other shops found in Konoha. Anteiku was a windowless, two-story building with dark crimson roofing, the visible walls of the first floor were made of stone, with wooden designs either hanging on hooks or inlaid into the stonework. There are several circular flower pots sitting against the outer wall, various flowers waving in the midday breeze, and a sign that read ‘open’ in kanji next to the door. One of the wooden panels that had a design of a wingless dragon carved into it splits vertically, revealing Aerith as she pushes the window open. Spotting Gin and Toboe, the flower girl exclaims “Oh, you guys made it!” before disappearing back into the building. Gin gulps as Toboe transforms back into his human form and opens the door before ushering the youngster inside.  
The floor that Gin stepped on was wood paneled and made of the same reflective, dark-brown wood that the corner bar across from the doorway was made from. The longer wall section that the door was set in had a single dark-green leather wall-seat that ran from the door to the corner booth on the other end of said wall. There were about five tables placed along this seat, with a window placed between each table, each of the three windows other than the middle, which Aerith was sitting next to, were closed. Even so, the light provided by the various hanging lamps over the booth tables and the bar were sufficient to see the rather empty room by. The teen with purple hair covering the right side of her face looks up from where she was cleaning the bar with a rag, a scowl appearing on her face as she speaks to Toboe.

“You have ten minutes to get your butt over to the West Gate, Toboe, Tsume!” The sound of footsteps pounding an unseen staircase echo while increasing as Toboe goes ramrod straight with a look of panic before a male teen charges out of the doorway on the other side of the bar.

“Oh crap, I completely forgot about the mission!” Toboe yelps as the man with a silver-pale buzz-cut, tan skin, and a x-shaped scar underneath his black leather jacket runs towards him.

“Tch, of course you did Runt, which is why we’re gonna be late! So get moving!” The male, - Tsume – snarls as he puts Toboe in a one-armed headlock while dragging the poor flailing kid backwards and out the door. The door closes on Toboe’s panicked shout of “Aerith, Guts, take care of Gin! Ahh, Tsume!” leaving an awkward silence that is broken by the sip of the sole patron sitting at the bar’s cup.

The person, an older shinobi with somehow-familiar brown hair that covered the sides of her face while wearing the standard green, shinobi flak jacket, says in a strangely familiar voice.

 “Your miso soup is great as always, Touka. Worth the endless stream of missions to finally come home to…”

It was when the bartender nods her head at the person, who swings around the stool before facing Gin that the young boy recognizes the smiling frequent visitor to the orphanage. “TOY-U!” the boy cries out as he scampers forward, the look of surprise on her face is swiftly replaced with a grin as she annoyingly ruffles his head with a gloved hand.

“Hey Gin, you’ve grown up. What were you, a midget two-year-old the last time I saw you?” Toyu exclaims as Gin ducks away from a second hair ruffling.

“I’m five now.” The boy chirps as he climbs onto a nearby stool next to Toyu, Aerith sitting down on his other side with a warm smile of her own at the cheerful banter.

“Are you here to order something or to take out an order, Gin?” Touka asks from where she had dumped Toyu’s leftovers in the trash and the eating utensils in a bin next to the open metal door behind the bar.

Gin blinks in startlement as he suddenly remembers why he was at Anteiku in the first place. He bashfully dodges another attempted head ruffle as he mutters “Matron sent me for a bottle of chakarized soda… to go.”

Touka nods her head in acknowledgement of the order before she leans away from the counter and shouts “Kaneki, we need one order of mobilized C-Soda, got that?!”

A male voice floats out of the kitchen saying “Check under the register in the mini-fridge, there should still be some left from this morning.” as Toyu stands up, the three wooden bottles tied together at her waist clacking together with the movement. She flashes a grin towards Touka before dropping some bills and coins on the counter and huffs out.

“For Gin’s drink and my own soup. Speaking of needing to go, I’ve got business to attend to myself. I’ll drop by the orphanage later if I can, Gin.”

A flash of surprise goes over Touka’s face before its replace with a worried frown as she calls after the leaving shinobi, who is waiting for Guts to fully enter before heading out the door. “Toyu, don’t strain that head of yours. Remember that there are nine of us running about so your approaching the current maximum you can have out at once.”

Toyu lifts a hand and calls back “I know Touka, I know far too well what will occur if I hit the maximum, or leave one of you outside for too long. I would prefer not to have that happening again. Later!”

And yet less than a minute later after Touka hands Gin his wooden bamboo bottle, then several events occur in swift succession. First, Guts near-permeant frown turns into a pained grimace, Aerith frowns with a wince, while Touka scowls and mutters a terse oath, while the sound of crashing dinner plates comes from the kitchen. A loud exclamation, as if in surprise or pain enters the building, followed by a large crash, several pops and the sound of breaking pottery nearby. Everyone inside the building swiftly exit to find a cloud of white smoke against the building’s wall. Without a second to spare Touka and Areith both enter the thick cloud, the white-haired chef following them soon after carrying a dirty-white blanket. Gin peers into the smoke, which gradually clears to reveal Touka lifting Toyu by the shoulders, Areith picking up the feet while Kaneki finishes tucking in the blanket around the body being carried. Toyu does not respond to Touka’s pained mutterings as Guts takes her place in carrying the unconscious customer back inside the building. It is then Gin realizes that they all had moved with ease and clear-minded purpose after the crash, like they were experienced with these kinds of situations.

“Does this… happen often?” He asks Kaneki, who looks up in surprise from picking up the salvageable shards of pottery from amongst the mixture of crushed plants, stone and wood next to the wall.  
With a wry smile, Kaneki reply is cheerful despite just watching a friend crash into the side of his work-place and knock herself out at the same time.

“Often enough that we know what to do, I’m afraid.”

Kaneki’s storm-cloud grey eyes flicker towards the open door and back towards Gin, a idea brewing hehind them before he asks Gin a question.  
“Do you mind if I walk you back to the orphanage instead of Aerith or Guts, seeing as how they are busy at the moment?”

Gin shakes his head, and Kaneki stands up, dusts himself off before vanishing briefly inside, exiting the bar a moment later with Gin’s bottle in hand.

Kaneki hands the bottle to Gin with a quiet “Let’s go home.”  
The walk back to the orphanage is a peaceful and Narutoless one, although Gin does not mind the peace and quiet after the events that had transpired.

* * *

 

The third Hokage lets out a small sigh of disappointment as the pure-black cat sleeping next to his desk hisses loudly in pain; the loud human shout heard at the same time through the open window of his house told him all he needed to know. “Mao, remind Cat that you are here; and that you need to be returned in one week just like the rest of her ‘characters’.” He tells the cat.

Mao opens a pair of eyes with light purple scapula and black iris as he sighs irritably at the source of many of his headaches. “The stupid brat won’t forget me like Yukki, old man. I’ll make sure of it.” He meows before lowering his head back to his front paws and resuming his ‘nap’. The way his ears twitched towards the door of the room moments before a returning team of shinobi entered told a different story.

After the team had left the room with a soft click of the door, the third Hokage frowns slightly as he takes another puff of his pipe before removing it with one hand eyes lingering on a drawer in his desk. It was this same drawer in his non-office desk on the left side of him near the ‘sleeping’ cat that he opens with his empty hand; to reveal an almost empty drawer. Inside of the drawer was the single object that Cat had found next to Naruto on the night of his birth and placed inside of his desk the moment she found it. It was a chakra-less object that she said was “ – dangerous, and it’s not supposed to be here; Hokage-sama.”. Cat refused to elaborate further on the item other than “I know what it is and used for, and if that information were to be given to anyone other than myself and Ibiki, the shinobi world would be a much more deadly and dangerous place.”

And yet the Hokage was unable to truly fathom or imaging what the circular plastic and glass scope attached to the strange object that was a piece to some unknown equipment could hold. This was primarily due to him not recognizing the two-pieces for what they were, the sniper scope and laser pointer attached to the provided muzzle piece of a H&K US Socrom Pistol. It was another piece to the slowly growing puzzle surrounding Cat and his predecessor’s son…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is more or less a divergent chapter, as I realized that If I am a self-Insert Anbu in the story I would more or less go on a henge-clone spree (Why has no one else done this? Is it because I'm the only one crazy enough to?), so this is the most recent results of that. I might do a part two from this chapter that consists of how the various 'characters' are effecting the timeline/interacting with Konoha and non-Konoha shiobi, as well as some POV from the self-insert herself.


	8. Kurama's Plot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurama goes on a memoric trip into Ein's pre-Scythe's past, which is hinted at in the three episode OVA and the end of her Route in the Visual Novel, both of which I borrowed from and utilized in this chapter. (Because Author-san is not a great enough writer to come up with a original tragic backstory for her favorite character. :C)

There was no sound outside of the slow dripping of sweat from Naruto’s chin as his cupped hands go up, lower to align with the top of the middle post, sudden raise, repeat.

  _I need to go back… remember… what I am… more… I must… remember more… of my… past…_  
Behind Naruto’s tired eyes that hold a light of determination, two memories merge with the dream’s reality. A metal can sits on top of a dirtied brick wall slick with rain water falls along with the final dust-covered opponent approaching her, a red hole appearing in his head at the same point where her bullet penetrated the can.

_…that’s… enough training for now…_

Slowly Naruto’s hand wipes sweat off his brow before he walks over to the nearby stream to the left of the three posts she-he had been training in front of nonstop for the past several hours. After quickly splashing water on his sweat-covered face, the puppet sees a familiar pair of red orbs looking back at the false face he-she wore from the reflected eyes.

_They are red again… They’ve been turning red at the end of each training session since that night… since I last dreamt of Master…_

The wind blows, cold against her false exposed skin and Ein shivers, before suppressing her thoughts and glancing back towards the tree line, a porcelain mask not fully hidden behind a tree.

_Even now… I’m being watched, and the number of people seems to have increased again… They are doing a horrendous job at hiding their hatred and presences from me… on purpose, maybe._

Naruto looks away briefly before walking slowly towards the trees, kicking a rock as the reincarnation walks on, giving the watchers ample time to find more strategic hiding spots. “Tomorrow I’ll try leaping from the branches of one tree to another branch in the same tree. Only just to test out how far I can jump from up high, seeing as how I can now jump from the ground to about… two stories up or so.”  
Nodding again to her-himself, Naruto-Ein starts the trek back to the orphanage where she was supposed to be at, seeing as despite the new rule, Naruto was still four years old.

* * *

 

To say that the kyuubi no kitsune was content with being sealed once more inside of a human against his will was a blatant, partial lie. There were things of great interest to him found in his ‘cage’, or just outside of it but still within the sealed dimension. The great fox releases an irritated growl as he observes the black-haired girl silently wander the space on the other side of the bars that contained him; a constant presence inside of an otherwise empty area. Not for the first time, Kurama lashes at the bars of his cage with several of his restless tails, but just like each time since she had first appeared, the pale-skinned teen was unresponsive to anything he did. It was as if she saw the world without truly seeing what was in front of her…

It was a theory that Kurama could attest to as he rests his head on top of his paws, and closes his eyes while he reached for the tiny sense of ‘something’ that existed in the back of his mind. The encroaching flames roar as the bars to his cage are replaced by circular tents that tower above him, the shadows dancing to the terrified screams of unseen humans. Kurama stands up as a glowing child-version of the female outside of his ‘cage’ runs through a gap between the still standing tents, fear shown clearly on her younger, pale face. Not wanting to have the distorted feeling of being pulled forward after said child while the scenery goes past unaffected by his presence like it had on the third such trip, the child-sized fox stalks the green, dress-wearing girl. It’s too easy for Kurama to catch up to the fleeing girl, going through the two tents that were between her and him like a ghost. On the other side of the cloth wall of the second, there is a human body lying face down, a upturned bowl lying next to the corpse on a rumpled blanket. His paws go through the bowl and blanket in the same manner his body went through the previous tent walls, as his body held no substance here. Kurama spots the girl in an instant, the crimson pendent she wore on a necklace flashing in the spreading firelight outside of the tent as he trots through the last wall.

The sound of multiple lightning strikes occurs and ceases with two swift bursts of white light against a nearby tent as Kurama watches two of the adult humans stop in mid run behind the girl. It takes a moment for the bodies to fall, spurts of blood shooting from their backs as multiple small holes appear where the blood leaves the corpses. In ten seconds the girl has run outside of the campground, a good distance into the unlit grass that is between another wall of towering fire and the dwindling screams of painfilled terror. During those ten seconds Kurama watches as the tents he had run through collapse behind him in an upward shower of sparks, illuminating the fleeing survivors nearby. In those ten seconds, Kurama knew, that everyone other than the girl who lived at the now-burning camp would perish. More bright white flashes happen in tune to the short bursts of metal whistling through the tents and survivors who cry out as they fall. A tall adult male wearing the same crimson necklace the girl has on runs past Kurama towards the girl and supposed safety, unaware of what lay hidden beyond the grass.

Like the previous times Kurama had visited, the man’s unobscured face was blackened by a shadow despite the way the rest of his body is illuminated in the surrounding firelight. Holes swiftly appear on the man’s chest as more flashes of white light and thunderous roars come from the surrounding circle of fire, from which shadowy figures slowly emerge. The girl is frozen in terror as the figures, humans wearing all-black cloth-armor, approach her from behind as more light flashes from the weapons in their hands. The muzzle flashes of what Kurama recognizes as either assault rifles or machine guns from previous memory trips are followed by the final thuds of the last known survivors as the broken necklace around the fallen man’s neck hits the bloodstained ground.

* * *

 

The surrounding wasteland, girl, and humans flicker and blur as if the kitsune was looking at the scenery underwater before it all fades away to a very different, but still blurry scene… A near-empty room with wooden floorboards and wall panels, dim dusty light coming from the very few beams seeping in through the cracks in the walls and from the single closed door. Even with the additional light, almost all the space in the room exists in total darkness, other than the small area near the wall-filtered light in which a familiar child sat, the necklace missing from her neck. A slightly-larger Kurama settles down in front of her, releasing a sigh of bored contempt as the glowing girl looks up; her eyes reflecting no emotion in the available light. The girl was wearing a black-rimmed, blue Chinese-style dress that was more akin to a shirt due to its short length, there was barely enough for her to sit on in the weak lighting. Her black hair is longer then it had been among the flames of death, now falling over her shoulders to the top of her chest, with the longest strand going at least halfway down her back. _You have remained silent since then… and will not speak until you see that **man** you care so much for…_ Kurama thinks to himself as he glances at the door.

A tall, skinny man opens it and enters the room, a old woman with a few wrinkles on her face waits behind him with a neutral expression, although her tired eyes carried a hint of sadness. The door closes as the man crouches before the girl, smiling darkly to himself before he does what each of the countless number of men had done to her since she had arrived here. Kurama scowls in distaste not for the first time at the action associated with the place, a building that the humans called a ‘brothel’.

“Even when there is no need for you to do so, your annoying kind still _breed_ like pathetic insects…” Kurama sneers to himself as the ‘memory’ moves forward in time by a few days, weeks, months, or a few years, he honestly could care less about the amount of time which passed until _that_ ‘memory’ arrived.

This time, some lantern light reveals both the naked tanned girl and a very large, muscular man; the bed that the older girl lies on as the man straddles her is covered in sweat stains that would soon be joined by a very unfamiliar liquid. The man chuckles to himself as he looms over the unresponsive girl, still quietly laughing as he shifts his upper body and lowers his hands to her collar bone and then moves them to her neck. In an instant, he squeezes, the girl’s inhale becomes a gasp from the sudden lack of air while the man’s quiet laughter takes on a slightly darker tone. Saliva trickles from the corner of her mouth as she attempts to breathe through clenched teeth, her hand reaching towards the nightstand knocks over the small bowl that sat on it with a clatter. Kurama’s grin briefly matches the man’s own as the girl’s hand freezes in midair, trembling before it descends and clenches the pair of chopsticks that sat next to the bowl, remnants of the girl’s final dinner in this pit hole.

“Kill him.” Kurama half-growls, urging her despite her not being able to sense him or his killing intent toward the man who was using her as a mere toy. In Kurama’s opinion, what she had been given by fate was a position worse than the one that the shinobi forced and degraded him with as a weaponized tool, even though that was soon to change. With a final gasp from the girl, the armed hand moves towards the man whose grin becomes an open gap of pain as the chopsticks enter his neck, most likely damaging the spine from the results. The silent girl’s eyes widen at the spray of blood splattering the already-sweat-soaked sheets and herself as the man falls off the bed before he lands facedown and unmoving on the floor. Slowly the glowing girl sits up, staring silently down at the body of the man she had just possibly killed as a feminine gasp comes from the open doorway. Kurama’s eyes narrow at the familiar, faintly glowing man who stood in the doorway flanked by a man on either side of him, most likely body guards who each had a female clinging to them. There was a third girl who stood in front of the glowing man with both of her hands clasped over her mouth in fear or horror of witnessing what had just occurred.

  _Giuseppe…_ Kurama glares as the two girls who were attached to the body guards disengage and move forward into the room, pulling a small water basin and cloth from underneath the bed. The third girl moves past one of the body guards and out of sight, the body guard himself following her without a moment’s hesitation, most likely to find the owner of the brothel. A few moments pass in which the only action which is done is the two girls washing away the bloodstains on the glowing girl’s body, and the glowing man walks forward into the room. The accompanying guard next to the glowing man bends down and inspects the body before pronouncing it to be dead, which only widens the amused smile the glowing man has on his face. Kurama ignores the conversation that occurs between the glowing man as he speaks with the old woman from before, who then appears in the doorway alongside the missing body guard.

The kyuubi slowly stands up as money is exchanged between the two as the last of the bloodstains are wiped off the glowing girl’s body, and a blanket is wrapped around her. The nearest guard grabs her arm and she follows without a word with Kurama walking behind her to the taxi awaiting them outside. The glowing man who had previously earned the name of Scythe Master is already inside of the vehicle when the others leave the brothel. Kurama watches as the girl climbs in after him, still silent as more money is exchanged between the glowing man who had just bought her with the guards and then the driver. With a low huff, the kyuubi leaps in the vehicle and lies down on the other side of Helmet von Giuseppe, one eye open as the taxi takes the pair to the hotel where the man was staying.

The elevator ride and subsequent walk to the hotel room is as quiet and uneventful to Kurama as the car ride had been. The girl silently walks to the bed and lies in the same manner that she had lain in the brothel, the blanket discarded in a small heap at the foot of the bed. The man who would become her Master walks to the side of the bed and removes a metal briefcase from underneath it, and then one of the syringes which lay inside. Kurama silently watches on as the man places the liquid-filled needle against the girl’s wrist so that the tip is angled towards the arm before piercing the skin. As the liquid is injected the girl’s darkened eyes slowly close, and her body relaxes before her hands tightly clench then gradually release the bed sheet underneath her. A few moments pass in which Kurama glares at Scythe, contemplating whether to eliminate the human when he sees the real version or to let him live for providing a way out…  
_If it were not for this man, I would not have my means of escape…_ the kitsune silently thinks as the nameless girl’s empty eyes open before her emotionless face turns towards Scythe.

 “Who… are you…?” she rasps, her voice sore and barely above a whisper from its long time of disuse, around four years from the village’s destruction until that day. Scythe Master amusedly smiles at her before answering, his voice the same as it would sound nearly two years in the girl’s memory-future.

“I am your creator, the person who will mold you into a being of divine perfection… But first, inform me my beauty, do you have any recollection of your past? Inform me, who are you and what is your purpose...?”

The nameless girl shakes her head with a small murmur of “I… don’t remember… anything…” as the man calmly places the empty needle on the nightstand before returning his gaze to her.

“Then I bestow upon you, my creation, the title of Ein, for only you may have the title which carries the weight of my life’s greatest ambition.”  
Scythe inclines his head with a smirk while he continues to speak to the newly-named Ein in a slightly blissful tone. “A distinguishability… one so grand, that all who view you will see your splendor and glory while standing in awe of your passing. Whereas I, your Master and the artist, will sculpt you into a masterpiece from the curtain side…”

With a dry chuckle to himself, Scythe Master once more bends down and removes another suitcase, opening it and laying out a familiar set of clothing on the available bed space. Kurama’s lips curl in distaste at what occurs next, as this was the moment the girl’s fate truthfully became that of a mindless _tool_ for the man in front of her and the miniature kitsune. Without any visible emotion, the girl moves into a sitting position as Scythe smoothly lifts the yellow geisha shirt from where it is lying next to her. After sitting down beside her and draping it across her back, Scythe Master then speaks with his chin hovering over her left shoulder.

“From this moment onward, you and I are inseparable. You will obey my every command until the instance I permit you to expire at the pinnacle of perfection. Yes… you will aspire to be the perfect performer, exquisite in all forms of acting on the stage… My precious Ein, do you understand what I speak of, my life’s dream for which you, and only you alone exist to fulfill?”

A light slowly flickers to life in Ein’s empty eyes, one of purpose among which no others could be found, as she was nothing more than an empty puppet awaiting the guidance of the puppeteer.  
In a voice that barely contained any emotion, the newly-made tool softly replies with two words that she would often say in her bloodstained future. “…Yes, Master…”

Kurama sighs in very mild boredom as the room, Master and _tool_ swirl into darkness before being replaced by a different scene, this one unblurred by time and lost, faded memories.

It was a building the humans in the memory called a ‘airport’, and Ein was sitting at one of the gates, reading a brochure; the scenery shifts again, Kurama finding himself in front of a building made of glass, full of civilians and other humans that did not use or possibly have chakra.  
“Either way, the girl did come from this chakra-less world, and plans on returning to her Master’s side here. I should be able to use her to escape the seal and then the shinobi world, thereby preventing myself from being sealed again, forever.” Kurama chuckles in humor to himself. The surroundings of Los Angles fade away as the normal bars of the seal and watered down floor return as the normal sized kitsune lets out a troubled growl of doubt at the idea forming.

“The problem however, lies in convincing the Master-following brat that the shinobi world is ‘real’ and not a ‘dream’ using the correct method... It would be troublesome if my only connection to that world hurts herself in order to ‘wake up’ or, gives up on continuing to exist without her Master.”  
With a annoyed grumble towards the unresponsive girl on the other side of the bars, the kyubii flicks a ear as he finishes his mutterings. “Which means I need to find a way to aid her in returning to her dimension…”  
The kitsune softly chuckles to himself once more before closing his eyes, dreaming of what he would do once he arrived in the land called America. However even this small form of rest and plotting would be denied to him, as there is a rapid tug on the trickle of chakra he is leaking into the seal. Kurama cracks open an eye to see with alarm the girl on the other side of the bars beginning to melt, or at least, her wrists, ankles, feet, and hands were beginning to. It only took a small poke with a bit of his own chakra throughout the brat’s chakra system to find the problem, as he was a creature of chakra and would know where a disturbance would be located.

 _Danm brat and her ritualistic training… she’s gone and almost burned through her still forming chakra coils… I might as well increase the amount being sent to her, as for her to burn through them now would make her useless if she is unable to remove the seal or form a pathway from this world to her own…  
_ Kurama increases the amount of chakra being sent to the girl’s system through the seal, and then directs what he can to her coils in order to undo the damage that she stupidly caused.

* * *

Ein knew that zealously focusing on her past training would be detrimental to her health, and yet she forgot that this body was not her previous one, well-honed and used to such strenuous activity. Somehow she is still surprised when the giant bars, watered floor that she was able to stand on, and a giant monstrous multi-tailed fox with a familiar pair of glowing red eyes emerges from the wastelands of her dreams that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment on what you thought! Was everyone in-character, do you want any pairings in this story, should Cat inact with Ein?


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